Don’t starve, eat!
A restrictive diet can have some very damaging emotional and physical consequences that can affect you not only now but also in the future. Emotions aside, the physical effects of dieting can be far-reaching. For one thing, most of the massive weight loss is usually regained due to lifestyle being unsustainable. Our physiology is not made to restrict food. We need a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable!
Fad diets often end in regaining all the weight lost. A study in the early 1990s involved a group of obese women who had lost an average of >20 pounds. These women were not properly educated in a healthy and sustainable nutrition regimen which resulted in the eventual regain of all the weight lost in four years. Fad diets and restrictive diets are not a long-term weight loss solution. While you may lose some weight in the short term, in the long term you will more than likely gain the weight back and more by “jumping the diet bandwagon” and overeating.
Likewise, your physiology usually kicks in; cortisol is released causing the absorption of fat. The stress hormone cortisol is released when our bodies are under stress, such as metabolic stress that coincides with dieting. Who cares? Well, cortisol secretion during times of long-term metabolic stress (long-term food restriction, diet) can induce fat storage as protection against future periods of metabolic stress. And luckily, most of these fat receptors are around the abdomen!
Although restrictive food diets are not recommended for most healthy people, they may be appropriate for people who are severely overweight or people at risk for certain diseases. This risk group aside, normal healthy people will find no benefit from severe food restriction! At one point or another, most of us have tried a fad diet for quick weight loss results. Does it ever work? Well, you can in the short term, but very rarely in the long term.
Everyone has done it and it usually leaves us feeling empty or even emotionally drained. We need healthy eating habits not only for psychological reasons but also to live a healthy life. To combat this, we need a healthy lifestyle change that is sustainable! A sustainable lifestyle doesn’t have to be super hard, it can be convenient and include some of the things you love! One way to start is to eat a hearty and nutritious breakfast every morning! This can satiate your appetite for the entire morning and fuel you for a productive day.
Fad diets are not the way to achieve sustainable weight loss goals. Each person needs a personalized plan that fits their budget of time and money. If it doesn’t fit your lifestyle, how can it help your waistline? If you take away from this article, it is that restricting food is not the path to a healthier or even happier life, rather it paves the way for terrible eating habits that can affect your physiology. Start eating healthy today, you deserve it!
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